Take Domestic Violence Seriously, Protect Neha, NOT her VIOLENT ABUSER

Abhishek Gattani has been violently abusing his wife for over 10 years – sometimes in front of their young daughter. There is chilling audio recording proof of Gattani violently and repeatedly slapping his wife and threatening to stab her “45 times.”

District Attorney Jeff Rosen has set guidelines to his assistants to NOT pursue violent felony charges in cases like this. For justice to be served each case must be weighed individually. In this case, Rosen’s office pursued a plea deal where Gattani would serve less than 30 days in jail, a non violent felony charge and a charge of “offensive touching”.

This is a clear case of a violent felony by a repeated violent domestic abuser. The evidence is extremely strong and the victim has offered a compelling statement and desire for prosecution. The DA’s office not only failed Neha Rastogi, they have failed all victims of domestic violence by not treating it like the violent crime that is it. Shame on them.

Jeff Rosen's office kept her silent throughout the process. The plea deal was made before Rastogi was given the opportunity to provide her testimony detailing the abuse she suffered and was scheduled while the presiding judge, Allison Danner, was on vacation.

This case represents a broken judicial system. Ironically, this is the exact same courtroom in which Judge Persky sentenced Brock Turner, a Stanford student convicted of sexually assaulting a woman, to serve six months in jail (of which Brock only served three). DA Jeff Rosen endorsed Judge Persky to prevent his recall. Rosen was wrong to prevent the recall and is wrong not to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law on behalf of violently abused victims seeking justice.